Leadership, Connection, and Community: Reflections from Our Retreat
There is something energizing about stepping away from the day-to-day pace of work to learn, reflect, and develop relationships with new people. Our recent leadership retreat gave us that opportunity. It brought together people from diverse backgrounds and roles for meaningful conversations, practical development, and a stronger sense of shared purpose.
We began with an energizing game of Scrabble, working to fit all our names onto the board, and even introducing the game to one new player! One might argue that the most valuable part of the retreat was simply meeting new people. New introductions over a game of Scrabble quickly turned into thoughtful conversations around leadership and our community.
Building on this, we were able to take a True Colors Personality assessment alongside a discussion led by Dayna Fentress. The True Colors personality assessment was a memorable part of the first day giving us a shared language for recognizing different communication styles, strengths, motivators, and approaches to problem-solving. More importantly, it encouraged us to think about how we show up as leaders and how we can adapt our style to better support, engage, and collaborate with others that we interact with whether that be in our personal or professional life.
After lunch Dr. Telly Sellars joined us for a while to focus on advanced leadership strategies and best practices. He brought a ton of energy to the room as well as some activities that had us working to survive as a team in a frozen tundra in one exercise and then helping us understand the differences in what leaders think motivates employees versus what actually does motivate employees (according to an extensive employee survey) in the next. We also focused on the importance of what, when, where, and how you communicate with others to be most effective. He got everyone in the room thinking about things from another’s perspective and kept everyone laughing while he did it.
We wrapped up the first day by focusing on some skills that can be applied immediately in our day-to-day discussions around time management and calendar discipline. These topics challenged us to be more intentional with our priorities, more thoughtful about how we spend our time, and more consistent in creating space for the work that matters most.
After all full day of content, we were able to relax and have some fun together. We took a trip to the Retro Social Freeplay Arcade for a quick bite to eat and some game time. Some took a trip right back to the 80’s and 90’s to play Pac Man, Mario, or Space Invaders while others joined in on newer group-oriented games such as Heads Up! letting us all see who in the group we should invite to our next trivia night (Emily, Brian, and McKayla, we see you!). Finally, some folks headed to their rooms while others kept the night rolling with some old school around the campfire (a la Holiday Inn Express conference room chair circle) hanging out.
Friday morning kicked off with an opportunity to hear from people with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. Amy Cloud started us off with a high-level overview of all that our State Chamber has to offer as far as the many business development resources made available to us and our local chapters and some of the many advocacy initiatives that are underway. After that, Annie Santos took us on a deep dive of what it takes to introduce, support, and successfully get a bill passed into law while explaining the chamber’s role in advocacy at the state level. These conversations connected our leadership development to the broader community and reinforced the important relationship between local organizations, public policy, and economic growth.
We were also able to have some open Q&A time with our local State Representative, Steve Bratcher. He did not shy away from any topic, and explained details related to many things going on in the state today that people often are not aware of as it relates to growth and development. Hearing directly from civic and business leaders added perspective to the retreat and reminded us that leadership extends beyond our own teams and organizations.
We wrapped up the retreat with a local history tour, which was a fitting way to close the experience. Learning more about the community’s past helped ground the conversations we had throughout the retreat and gave us a deeper appreciation for the place, people, and stories that continue to shape our region.
By the end of the retreat, we left with new connections, fresh insights, and practical tools to strengthen our leadership. The retreat reminded us that leadership is not only about strategy and execution, but also about trust, communication, intentional habits, strong relationships, and the ability to understand and collaborate with the people around us.
Leadership grows when we learn, connect, listen, and bring what we learn back to our communities.
Blog Content Collaborators:
Cora McPherson
Vice President Financial Operations
Baptist Health
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Nakeya Moses
Banking Center Manager, NMLS # 1748382
Magnolia Bank
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Katie Guyton
Ag Relationship Manager, NMLS # 2611369
Magnolia Bank
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